recognised leaders in the development of the law of negligence
Kent graduated from Victoria University of Wellington in 2009 and was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in August of that year.
Kent began his career working in a boutique insurance litigation practice in Auckland where he acted for insurers defending professional liability claims brought against solicitors, real estate agents, valuers, engineers and architects. He was also responsible for a large portfolio of carrier liability and cargo recovery claims. He regularly appeared in the District Court on behalf of New Zealand and Australia’s largest debt collection agency.
In 2010, Kent joined the predecessor of the firm as a solicitor. His clients included local authorities and local and international insurers. The claims in which he was involved concerned, among others, tortious claims including building defects, land slips, contamination and breaches of the Resource Management Act. Kent appeared across a number of jurisdictions including the Weathertight Homes Tribunal, the District Court and the High Court.
In June 2012, Kent moved to London where he joined a mid-tier insurance specialist legal practice with 13 offices across the United Kingdom. He joined their professional indemnity team and acted for insurers defending professional liability claims against valuers, estate agents and auctioneers. Kent was also responsible for providing indemnity and liability advice to one of the United Kingdom’s largest real estate and letting agents. In October 2013, Kent moved to Lloyds Bank plc. At Lloyds, Kent managed a team responsible for defending the bank against regulatory and ombudsman claims brought by customers in respect of regulated financial derivative products and non-regulated products such as long term loans.
Kent returned to us as an Associate in January 2017.
We acted for Hamill Realty Ltd in successfully defending an application by the Appellant, Ms Raue, through which she sought to file her case on appeal out of time.
We acted for a real estate agency and its sales agent in this disciplinary investigation by the Real Estate Authorities’ Complaints Assessment Committee.
We successfully defended an application for leave to appeal a decision of the District Court, brought out of time, by a tenant of a property that our client managed.
We successfully defended our real estate agency and sales agent clients against a complaint made against them to the REA. The Complaints Assessment Committee decided to take no further action.
WorkSafe’s recent investigation into a structural steelwork company has come to an end and resulted in a prosecution in the Christchurch District Court.
We successfully resisted an application by Stuff for access to the documents on the court file.
We act for twenty third party councils joined to this representative action by Carter Holt Harvey (CHH). CHH is being sued by a number of home owners with Shadowclad, a CHH product, on their houses. The claim is representative and funded by a litigation funder. The home owners allege that Shadowclad is inherently defective. This judgment deals with CHH’s applications regarding abuse of process, leave to appeal and an associated stay.
Kent Perry’s article for Contractor Magazine on using judicial review to challenge an adjudicator’s decision under the Construction Contracts Act 2002.
"... The pupils and teachers have not had the benefit of healthy code-compliant buildings for eight years; and the award reflects the amount necessary to repair the School.”